Insurance – PIP – Discovery – Sanction

Where, in an action for both G.L.c. 90, §34M personal injury protection payments for chiropractic treatment and G.L.c. 93A, §11 damages for the defendant insurance company’s unfair business practice in failing to pay for that treatment, the trial judge ruled that an appropriate sanction for the defendant’s discovery violations was to preclude expert testimony and to find that the plaintiff had established a prima facie right to recover on both its claims, the trial court’s judgment for the plaintiff must be vacated because the sanction imposed in this case violated principles of due process.